HI 131: Panda Park
Grey and Brady discuss: veganism and murder rooms, Brady visits China, how brains visualize things, many much podcasts, weekly TV, Plane Crash Corner without planes, The Buzz without bees. Show Notes be added Summary be added Transcript Brady: You well? Grey: I'm doing alright. I mean it's... it's a little strange because aside from going to the gym, I haven't left the house since we last spoke, and you've been to China since we last spoke. Brady: We haven't had a lot of contact lately; I feel like I've lost touch a bit, even by our standards. Grey: Yeah, you have been a world traveler, and I have been vastly more of a hermit than I normally am. I'm sporting, like, a real, proper, crazy-person scraggly beard at the moment, so it's like yes, I've been... I've been very much like an indoor person. Brady: For work reasons? Have you been on some work project that's been keeping you in? Or... Grey: Yeah, mainly. I've just been sort of doubling down on a couple of projects that I want to finish. And then it's like: oh, my world narrows down to but this tiny slice of things. So yes, I have no sense of time, and in a weird way feel like "Didn't we just talk?" And then I have to remember you've been on the other side of the word, and back. Brady: Well, I'm home now. H.I. Grey: How's the veganism going? Brady: Well, perhaps we should talk about my trip to China, because that's where it was put to the test. Grey: Okay! If you think so. If China and veganism go hand-in-hand, let's do that. Brady: And again—like, I don't know how many times I have to tell you this—but I'm not going vegan, I'm trying to go vegetarian. Grey: You're going "plant-based diet", is what you're going. Brady: No, that's veganism! Grey: No, but the Reddit told me "plant-based diet" isn't a code for veganism, it's just a new way to talk about this. Brady: Well I think it is code for veganism. Grey: I think it's code for veganism too. Brady: But it's because veganism has a new meaning—veganism also, like, seems to come with a whole bunch of ideologies and political beliefs that people don't want to be associated with. So, like, I can see how people can say "plant-based" is different to veganism. But it's only different if you think veganism means all those other things. Grey: Oh, okay. So your take on it is: "plant-based diet" is veganism minus vegan politics? Brady: Yeah, and like vegan personality, and... you know. Like, veganism, I think, got sort of taken over by a certain type of person in the zeitgeist, you know, and not everyone wants to be associated with that kind of type of person, whatever that means. Grey: Before you started on China, I think this is a good moment for like, a lesson, from grizzled veterans who have been around on the internet for a long time, and the danger of applying labels to yourself. And it's like, whatever labels come along always get co-opted by the most extreme version of the people who have those labels. And then, everybody else who feels like a normal person slowly exits and needs to find a new word. And then the whole process just starts over again, right? Which is like, this happens with everything, and it's generally why like—don't put labels on yourself. Just, you know, do whatever you want to do, because you're going to get burdened by the craziest people who use that label. Brady: And I can't think of any label that is going to morph more quickly than "plant-based". 'Cause "plant-based" already sounds like it's a certain type of nature-y green thumb–type personality. Like, that's gonna morph really quickly into like, a stigma as well. be finished Category:Episodes